I Need Some help.

[CodyD]

To start off with I the Dog and Cat Dept. manager at national chain pet supply store(please don't hold it against me). I need some help a male veiled chameleons came in to the store from the breeder sick and had to go to the vet. It came back with a metabolic bone disease,and it was cured for a mild infection and some skin issues. I adopted it after our Small Animal Care Animal Manager asked me if I could, and helping me get the best basic set-up that i could afford until pay-day. I'm set-up right now with a Zoo-Med 60w daylight blue/nightlight red combo in a Zoo-Med Mini Combo Deep Dome Dual fixture, a Exo-Terra 13w Reptile UVB 100 light in its own dome fixture 2 Exo-Terra Amapallo Jungle Vine, Conceptual Creations Mist'r Lizard Junior for Reptiles, a couple of tall leafy Non-silk plants and a sallow food dish for meal worms. Right now he is an a 29 gallon aquarium, but I have 2'x2'x4' a screen habitat on the way. tonight is my first night with him. The vet is afraid his tongue has atrified. He isn't eating crickets right now but i am able to hand feed him small meal worms. I tried hand feeding crickets with no success. He also get 0.01mL of Neo-calglucon once nightly(that he took out of a syringe no fuss). I was also advised to rub Neosporin on him if he is fooking super dry. I plan to misting twice a day. He is only about 3" long and way under weight. He is semi active and spent some time exploring his new home. he has good color change. I'm trying to handle him as little as possible but he seems to enjoy being on my fingure he fell asleep there after I gave him his meds, and rubbed back on my figure when i was putting the Neosporin on him. Any advise on getting him up to a healthy weight and healthy care would be greatly appreciated.

 

[SmokeJoker]

I believe butter worms are good for getting some weight on your cham, and I've read that meal worms aren't the best because of the shell they have, but if that's all he will eat right now he should be fine. Everything else your doing seems to be fine just make sure your basking spot isn't to hot and your humidity stays up. Also I disn't see anything about dusting in your post. Do you dust your crickets and worms with calcium?

 

[CodyD]

I didn't know to dust the meal worms but i will get some dust tomorrow while at work. Any suggestions on a good one? I think the temp. is good his basking spot is about 6" at its closest. and he dose a pretty good job of moving around to find a conferable spot.

 

[SmokeJoker]

You'll need both of those and multivitamin. So "eating out of my hand" thread, I posted a dusting schedule on there. I hope this is helpful.

 

[CodyD]

Thanks. I embarrassed to post these of the poor fellow but I want to give him the bed life possible. But here a couple of pictures of him.

 

[LindsayG]

Ditch the red nightlight. He doesn't need it. He needs complete darkness at night.

 

[CodyD]

Ok, red light is off. Going to take the combo set back tomorrow and get just the daylight blue.

 

[R.H]

Poor little fella, could u get ur hands on some silk worms or calci worms much more nutritional than meal worms, and iv heard that calci worms can be known to stunt mbd and sometimes reverse!! ( i.m not a professional and theres deffinitly more experienced helpers on this site) Both are easy to feed to him urself!!
I hope this little man gets better soon, and u get all the help u need .

 

[Connorology]

In terms of feeders:

I would recommend small superworms for putting on weight, as they have about as much protein as crickets per gram, and substantially more fat. They're also easier to digest than regular mealworms, and from a pragmatic standpoint they are cheap, most pet stores carry them, and they last much longer than almost any other feeder. I would recommend getting a bunch of those and putting them into a bin with bran or oatmeal, then tossing in fresh fruits and veggies as a gutload. You'll eventually want to diversify the diet, but as you already mentioned the current goal is getting him up to a healthy weight and if he'll only eat mealworms this may be your best bet.

Butterworms and waxworms might be of some short-term use to you as well, but butterworms can be hard to come by and are expensive, and waxworms have little nutritional value outside of their fat content. They both have less of a shelf life than superworms. There are other feeders that would be good to have- namely silkworms or hornworms, both of which are fairly high in protein and fluids, or reptiworms (phoenix worms), but depending on where you live, the more exotic feeders can be tough to find, especially in February. Superworms should be fine for now.

Stray thoughts:

Here's the recommended care guidelines from the forum if you haven't had a chance to read it yet. Make sure your temps and humidity are within the recommended parameters: https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/caresheets/veiled/.

Do you know how much he currently weighs or have any means to weigh him? How much is he eating? Is he drinking? He doesn't look great in those pictures, and I think your biggest short term goal is to make sure he is eating and drinking enough to recover. If he is not eating enough or not drinking, you can try syringe feeding with bug-goo, but this is a fairly involved process and is less than desirable. Also, Neo-calglucon is a calcium supplement, so I don't think you need to worry about calcium dusting while you're giving him the drugs. You might give the vet's office a quick call to check though.

Good luck!

 

[CodyD]

Thanks, we have super worms at my work. My only concern is the size and trying to get him to eat something that large. I live in Austin, Texas so I was going to go into zookeepers on Monday to pick up anything that I couldn't get at my store.

 

[CodyD]

Got s better picture of him this morning while trying to get him to eat a mealworm.

 

[brownie64]

I don't see MBD, but if he isn't using his tongue properly he could have an onset of it. I would keep introducing the crickets, and try to get him to eat some. Start with the supplementation calcium without d3 at about every feeding, with d3 twice a month, and you are also going to want to get a multivitamin to give twice a month. If he does have MBD he should make a full recovery once you get his husbandry right. Good luck, and congrats on your new arrival.

 

[CodyD]

Thanks for all the help. Got him a better house set up this evening not as big as I would like, but at least it's a screen habitat not glass aquarium. Going to get more foliage tomorrow.

He seems to be handling the change fine. Went and explored for a bit. Then found a nice spot to hang out on his vine.

His basking spot is at 82F and the bottom is at about 72F and humidity is holding around 60%. Any further advise would be greatly appreciated.

p.s. The fall flowers in the background are not part of his habitat.

 

[urawrath]

More horizontal branches would be best to provide a better temperature gradient for him to bask in. they can be attached with pushpins, zip ties, floral wire, bread ties. Many people say no substrate but I personally use it with my panther just have to watch and see it he ingests it and regularly change it out. With him recovering from everything right now it would be best to keep him in this smaller one and not stressing him with the 2x2x4 you had mentioned you have ordered right now. Once he is recovered he can go in there. You are doing great keep up the good work

 

[kinyonga]

I only see very very slight indications of MBD.
When a chameleon has MBD you need to first bring the calcium back into balance while ensuring that the husbandry is right so that it won't recur. Muscles (tongue, digestive system, etc) will be weaker until it's corrected Btw.

Since most feeder insects have a poor ratio of calcium to phosphorous its important to dust the insects just before feeding them to the chameleon with a phosphorous-free calcium powder at most feedings to help make up for it.

To ensure that the chameleon gets some D3 without overdosing it and leaving the chameleon to produce the rest of the D3 from its exposure to the UVB light its important to dust the insects twice a month with a phosphorous-free calcium / D3 powder.

It's also recommended that you dust twice a month with a vitamin powder that contains a beta carotene (prOformed) source of vitamin A. PrOformed sources of vitamin A cannot build up in the system and lead to health issues like prEformed sources can and will leave it up to you to decide whether the chameleon needs prEformed or not.

Appropriate temperatures allow for proper digestion and thus play a part indirectly in nutrient absorption. For a basking light you can use a regular household incandescent light bulb of a wattage that produces the appropriate temperature.

Watering and other husband is important too.
Good luck with him...in the last photo he looks like he has a chance!

 

[Cham_Ang]

Is there a dripper for drinking?

 

[CodyD]

I do not have a dripper, I'm picking one up while at work tomorrow, but I have been heavily misting twice a day and lightly all though out the day.

 

[R.H]

id personally mist 3/4 a day untill dripper inplace , then at least 3 times a day .

 

[Carlton]

I am so glad to hear how much you are trying to do for this poor little guy! He's bound to have a much better life with you even though you've had to scramble starting from scratch. We'll welcome a kind "dog and cat department" person like you any day. I was also glad to hear your manager was concerned enough to find someone to take care of him instead of chocking him up to a livestock loss. Hopefully your livestock buyer will do a better job selecting their sources for animals to carry in the store too. Some before and after pics might send the message home!

 

[CodyD]

Got more some more vertical climbing set up, a little more foliage in, and a dripper. Think I finally got him set up completely.